1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for handed-held printing a stored image on a surface or medium.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic document technology has been developed to support two directions of information flow, i.e., image capture and image display. Image display generally involves printing a stored image on a desired surface or medium, or displaying the stored image on a display device, such as a monitor or projection screen.
For printing a stored image on a desired medium such as paper, a desktop printer or portable printer is typically employed. In such devices, the medium is fed past a ink-jet head, laser or other printing mechanism within the device so that image data is reproduced on the medium. Thus, even though printers may be portable, such devices are not suitable for printing on surfaces that cannot be fed through the device.
A hand-held printer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,872 to Yamada. This printer has optical sensors for tracking positions of the hand-held printer relative to the surface of a print medium during a printing process. The change in position of the hand-held printer during the printing process is monitored in real time using navigation information generated by the optical sensors. Images of the surface of the print medium are captured at fixed time intervals. The optical sensors may detect printed features or slight pattern variations on the print medium, such as papers fibers or illumination patterns from reflective features and shadowed areas between raised features. Such features are used as references for determining the movement of the hand-held printer.
This invention provides systems and methods for hand-held printing a stored image on a surface or medium.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for hand-held printing using an absolute coordinate system.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for hand-held printing using global tracking or position information.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for hand-held printing using a combination of global and local tracking or position information.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for hand-held printing with a relatively low-tech appearance and operation.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for hand-held printing of a stored image onto a whiteboard.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for an interface between electronic and/or computer technology and conventional whiteboard technology.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for hand-held printing of a stored image using dry-erase ink.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for hand-held printing of a stored image based on image data and position information.
In various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods of this invention, a printer system comprises a hand-held device usable to print images onto a surface or medium. Global position information of the hand-held device relative to the surface or medium is detected and used to determine a portion of the image that is printed on the surface or medium.
In various exemplary embodiments the systems and methods of this invention, an image is stored as pixel data. As a user moves a hand-held marking mechanism of a printer system across a surface, global position sensing technology is used to sense where the marking mechanism is located on the surface. The position of the marking mechanism is compared with the pixel data of the stored image, and ink is printed onto the surface to reproduce the stored image.
In various exemplary embodiments, an inkjet-style print bar is used. The print bar may contain a row of ink nozzles that each eject ink under computer control. The hand-held device may print an image in conventional dry-erase ink and may be used to print on a conventional whiteboard.
In various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods of this invention, a marking mechanism is moved over a surface or medium. A global position of the marking mechanism relative to the surface or medium is sensed as the marking mechanism changes location. A control signal is transmitted to the marking mechanism based on image data of a stored image and the sensed position. The control signal causes the marking mechanism to print the stored image onto the surface or medium.
In various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods of this invention, a local position sensing system senses a motion of the at least one print head relative to the surface or medium. The local position sensing system may comprise a video-based system including a plurality of glyph marks on the surface or medium and at least one video camera associated with the at least one print head.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention.